I have seen a 1982 performance of the Who on german TV a few months back and John Used his cone head exploiter for almost the entire thing. (only switching when he needed a fretless sound at which he strapped on a Wal) If you think the exploiter looks huge, then you're not mistaken. John wore the bass way up high and the bass completely dwarfed him. He was constantly fiddling with the controlls on the lower horn, getting a really raunchy overdrive when flicking one of the switches so I guess that it had some kind of Distortion device built in.
Here's the reason why John Entwistle eventually stopped using Alembics.
?Unfortunately, the basses were very sensitive to the climate changes on our tour schedules, and I?d spend as long as a half-hour before every gig making adjustments. Also, I grew tired of the bloody 5-pin Cannon jack and transformer box I had to use with them. What finally put me off was when we did Live Aid. Right before we were to play, my main bass went dead because I?d accidentally crossed some wires while changing the battery. I ran for the backup bass but couldn?t tune it because there were no transformers backstage. At that point we were introduced, and I barely managed to get back onstage in time to start ?My Generation.? If you listen closely to the video, you can hear me tuning the D string as we go. I just about got it in tune in time for the bass solo. I sold the main bass to the Hard Rock Cafe ? that was its punishment.?
(Message edited by blazer on October 31, 2004)
